Opening a public case and returning the indictment

With the entry into force of the Criminal Procedure Code numbered 5271 on 01.06.2005, the provisions of "return and acceptance of the indictment" took place for the first time in our criminal legislation. With this regulation, as explained in the decisions of the Supreme Court, in accordance with the principles of "The Right of Persons not to be Spotted" and "Full Investigation and Hearing in One Session", the public prosecutors carrying out the investigation should collect all the evidence in a reasonable time, should prosecute actions only when they consider to result in conviction, and should not prosecute actions if they deem will result in acquittal, that is, they are intended to serve as a kind of filter. In this context, it will be possible to proceed to the prosecution phase in a complete and accurate collection of all evidence during the investigation phase. Since the court will not have to collect evidence again during the prosecution phase, the dispute subject to the investigation can be decided in one session. Thus, the "right to a fair trial" in Article 6 of the ECHR and the "right to trial within a reasonable time" included in the last paragraph of Article 141 of our Constitution that is integrated with the right to a fair trial have been reflected in our criminal legislation. When the decisions of the Supreme Court against the decision to return the indictment are examined, it cannot be said that the provisions of the acceptance and return of the indictment have achieved their purpose. In addition, in the legal regulations (CPC Art. 170,174), there are elements that may constitute a violation of the essence of the right to a fair trial given in the 6th article of the ECHR. The changes made with the law numbered 7188 in 2019 were also not sufficient. The issues constituting a violation of the essence of the right to a fair trial due to the problems in implementation and the legal regulation should be eliminated by new and comprehensive legal regulations, hereby, the "return and acceptance of the indictment" should be made in accordance with the last paragraph of Article 141 of our Constitution and the essence of Article 6 of the ECHR.